Don't buy the dip, Citi Wealth head warns investors

by Chanyaporn Chanjaroen and Denise Wee

Citigroup Inc. is urging rich clients to stay cautious amid extreme market volatility even though “peak shock” might have passed, according to the bank’s global wealth head Andy Sieg.

The Wall Street bank’s advisers are saying “don’t chase this, don’t buy the dip,” Sieg told Bloomberg Television’s Haslinda Amin and Avril Hong in an interview during his visit to Singapore on Thursday. “Let’s try to be disciplined at a time that the world’s moving very fast.” He said it’s not the time now to add to risky assets. 

Stocks are rallying Thursday from a deep plunge over recent days after US President Donald Trump decided to pause proposed higher trade tariffs on most nations. The magnitude of those earlier drops had resulted in margin calls at some major investors including large hedge funds as well as wealthy individuals.

“The world now knows this tectonic shift is happening,” said the New York-based executive, referring to ongoing tariff hikes in the US and China. “What we can’t know yet is the way this is going to flow through to economic activity, corporate earnings.”

The relentless news flow has meant that the longest sleep “any of us have had” is three to four hours, said Sieg. With Trump “very focused” on US manufacturing jobs and the global trading system being deeply intertwined, reconciling these in a way that everyone can navigate is what keeps him up at night, he added.

Copyright Bloomberg News